


tried, tested, true

by aimerai



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Series: Protector of the Small
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29126205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimerai/pseuds/aimerai
Summary: Kel grows up and into her own, through the eyes of the people who love and respect her.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2020





	tried, tested, true

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Renagirl9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renagirl9/gifts).



> To Sarah: I hope you enjoy this look into a possible future for Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan, Protector of the Small. I really loved writing it!! And also? Thanks so, so much for your patience <3 
> 
> To Kassie: Thank you so, so much for reading over this so many times and easing me out of the mental blocks. Maybe I could've done it without you, but it wouldn't have been as much fun <3

**KEL**

For Kel, it was more than a little odd to be based back in Corus. Odder still to be back in Corus and not living in the palace anymore. Before they’d left for the war, she’d still had her quarters next to Lord Raoul’s. She’d been one of the last knights to leave the north, not content until she knew New Hope would be fine without her. She doesn’t know how to settle back here anymore, back in the Mindelan townhouse where her parents are living almost full-time when they're not traveling to the Islands, leaving the fief to Anders. Now that Roald and Shinko are married, and Tortall is no longer at war, there's a lot more communication between the two countries. Her parents are still instrumental, but she's not sure she knows how to live with them anymore. She's always a little more comfortable when they're in the Islands, like they are now. 

Still, whether they're here or not, she spends a lot of time up at the palace. She trains with the Riders, sometimes, filled with more familiar faces than she'd expected. She trains with the Own, where the new faces gawk at her and the old faces laugh at her new notoriety. She goes with the Own, sometimes. She doesn't belong with them, not really, but it's something to do and Third Company, at least, never minds her company. She goes out with the Own a lot, actually, and finds it both comfortingly similar and very different from her squire days.

"Don't you ever get tired?" Dom asks, one day, while they’re both working to unload a wagon of supplies. 

Kel’s been riding with Third Company for a couple of weeks now, helping a small riverside town deal with flooding damage.They're up north somewhere, close enough that Kel can stop for a visit to New Hope without much of a ride. She wishes she’d thought to bring Tobe with her; Stefan isn’t a strict mentor to Tobe and the Riders have been out for their camp. Tobe came back to Corus with her, but he’s friends with the New Hope children; he still goes to visit them almost as much as Kel does. She hadn’t been surprised that Tobe had come back south with her, even though she’d thought about letting him out of his indentured servitude so he could stay in New Hope. He’d set his chin in a mulish bent and told her he’d be following her until she was sick of him when he was ten, and hasn’t much changed in the four years since. 

When she looks up, Dom is still looking at her expectantly. He’d asked her a question while hauling out a crate. 

"Tired of what?" Kel asks. 

"You never take a break," Dom says.

She trains with whoever will take her when she’s in Corus. If no one else is there, she trains by herself, the same way she did through her page and squire years. She’s spent too much time on the road to be happy being idle and too much time helping others to not do that anymore. She saw firsthand what the realm was really like as a squire, and she still promised herself to the realm. She doesn’t have the words to explain this to Dom or anyone else. Dom asked. No one else has yet, except for Neal, but Neal doesn’t count, because Neal is also a knight. Besides, Neal has followed her almost from the beginning, even though he didn’t need to, so many years older than her, even if they were pages and squires and made knights together. 

“I didn’t put eight years of work into my shield to rest,” Kel says carefully, keeping her face Yamani blank. 

“There are other knights,” Dom says thoughtfully.

“Surely you know me better than that,” Kel says, voice still as calm as a smooth glass pond. She’s not sure if she’s angry or not. And if she is angry, she’s not sure if it’s because it’s Dom asking, or if it’s because Dom is implying that she doesn’t need to care, even though it’s the only thing Kel has ever done. 

“Meathead’s worried,” Dom says quietly. “He’s been writing letters, talking about how he hasn’t seen you around much. Each one has dramatic sentences about how you’ve forgotten about him. He claims you’re leaving him to languish in the palace alone.”

Kel wants to laugh, despite herself. How very like Neal, to use his cousin to keep an eye on her. If she mentions it to him, he’ll wave his hands uselessly and say he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Somewhere during his squiredom with the Lady Knight, he’d learned to be tricky. It’s a shame that he’s got a sharp tongue and a tendency to avoid the tactful options. “He’s training to take over Duke Baird’s duties, and he has Yuki there. You’re exaggerating.”

Dom claps her on the shoulder. “Maybe bruise him up a little in the training yard. Call it nostalgia if you want to. Sir Meathead could stand to remember how to use his weapons.”

Kel laughs and hauls out the last sack from the wagon. “I’ll take that under advisement.”

“Really, Kel,” Dom says, blue eyes kind and serious. “It wouldn’t be so bad for you to spend some more time in the palace.”

Kel shrugs and doesn’t say anything back. Dom’s entitled to his opinions. Kel’s entitled to her own opinions as well. This is what makes the most sense to her right now; helping people who need it desperately when it’s only midway through spring and they’re experiencing flooding severe enough to warrant the King’s Own. Kel doesn’t want to get pulled into court intrigues and politics; she still doesn’t know how to feel about her own king. She’s okay leaving that kind of thing to Neal, to Yuki, to Roald, to Shinko. 

She thinks she’ll be giving Neal extra lumps when she’s next in Corus and able to go into the palace.

* * *

**LALASA**

The thing about Kel is that she cares about everyone she meets, and whenever she sees someone who wants to learn, she’ll teach them, provided that it’s a skillset she has. If it's not, she'll find someone who can help without thinking twice about it. Sometimes, she'll do it even without letting them know. That's just Kel's way. It was the thing about Kel that Lalasa hadn’t understood for months and months, when she first started serving Kel. She’d learned, eventually, that as blank-faced and rational as Kel appeared to be, she had a bleeding heart worse than Lalasa under it all. Lalasa hadn’t known that people like Kel could be real, but she knows it now. 

She sees it now, too, in the boy that Kel rescued just like she rescued Lalasa. Lalasa and Tobe have an understanding built around Kel and the ways in which they both care for her. Lalasa still makes all of Kel’s clothing; Tobe takes care of Kel’s horses, even though Kel doesn’t think she’s too good to do it herself, unlike many nobles. More than that, Tobe checks over her horses; he’s the one who got Kel a replacement for Peachblossom, who Kel still loves dearly even if Lalasa knows he is and always has been a mean horse, happy to try to take off chunks of flesh even in his old age. Tobe and Lalasa swap stories sometimes, too, about Kel and what Kel was like for them. All the stories she hears from Tobe just reinforce that Kel has the desire to help people sewn into her very bones. 

Lalasa isn’t trying to take advantage of it, but someone told Kel about her classes. Kel knows when her shop closes early, and the first time, Kel is just there, hovering at the back of the room. Lalasa thought she'd feel more nervous about having Kel here, seeing what Lalasa’s done with what she’s been taught, but she's not. She had the best teacher, a woman who laughed when Lalasa, who’d been too afraid to say anything or ask any questions, threw her across the room. Lalasa’s comfortable now, and she has Kel to thank for it, so she doesn’t draw everyone’s attention to Kel. Instead, she drifts in between the women in the room, correcting poses and alignments and movement until she’s standing next to Kel. 

“Well, my lady?” Lalasa asks, feeling a quiet contentment. She made this the same way she makes dresses fit for royalty. She doesn’t love it the same way she loves dressmaking, but the looks on the faces of the women she teaches are well worth it. Knowing that these women will no longer need to feel powerless the way she had is well worth it. 

Kel’s smile is small but no less honest. “Lalasa, this is wonderful.”

“Will you keep coming by?” Lalasa asks. They’re not the same people they were when they first met. Kel has more scars and has grown into the body that Lalasa had thought would never stop growing. Lalasa’s not an orphan constantly trying to hide from her own shadow but a dressmaker who’s dressed royalty.

“You wouldn’t mind?” Kel asks quietly. 

Lalasa smiles. “Some of the girls want to know more. A couple of them are thinking about the Riders, my lady, and you know more about that than I do.”

Kel’s smile is quiet, but Lalasa can feel the quiet pride and contentment radiating off of her old mistress. “I could try to bring some of the Riders and Rider trainees as well.”

Lalasa isn’t surprised that Kel’s offered. “I don’t know that they’d take the time to visit. I’m teaching self-defence, not advanced tactics. I leave that to you.”

Kel laughs quietly. “You’d be surprised. Some of the Riders also started out as girls just trying to defend themselves.”

Lalasa knows there’s a story there that Kel isn’t telling her and wonders how many people there are like her, like Tobe, like all those pages Kel would stand up for without thinking twice about it. She thinks she’ll never find out. Kel’s dedication to doing what is right is boundless. 

Lalasa isn’t surprised that Kel comes back. She had promised herself she wouldn’t doubt Kel years ago. She’s not always there, often riding out with the King’s Own, but when she’s in Corus she comes and stays in the back, occasionally helping when Lalasa offers corrections. At the end of classes, she gets mobbed by anyone considering a career with the Riders and answers each question carefully. Lalasa is surprised that Kel actually brings friends from the Riders, but then chides herself for her surprise. As if she doesn’t know the kind of loyalty Kel inspires firsthand. Some of them start coming without Kel, teaching tricks even Kel doesn't know. 

* * *

**ALANNA**

“Has she caught on yet?” Alanna asks, grinning wildly at Raoul. 

She’s heard the story of Kel doing the math, of Kel adding up supplies and coming up with the war. She knows what Raoul is doing, the same as she knows that Jon is absolutely losing his mind over it even as everyone else is kindly stomping all over him, his heir and his heir’s consort and his wife. His Champion and the Commander of the King's Own as well, although he must have expected that. Jon had to have known it was a possibility, when Kel ended up as Raoul’s squire, but likely thought of it as happenstance. But then Kel jousted. But then Kel traveled with the Own. But then Kel hared off into enemy territory with a ragtag group of green knights and a squad of the King’s Own and came back with hundreds of refugees and turned the tide of the war. Even though Kel herself refuses to acknowledge how instrumental she is, or perhaps doesn’t realise it, everyone who is anyone, who listens to the rumours, knows that Kel has power and respect. She’s a woman; it’ll bother the conservatives and the traditionalists, but only a fool would challenge Kel’s right to Raoul’s post. 

Raoul snorts. “Of course she hasn’t. It would require Kel acknowledging that people would be willing to be led by her.”

Alanna laughs, tinged with bitterness. "And how much of that, exactly, is because of that fool from Cavall?" 

Raoul raises his eyebrows, but then again, it's no secret how hard Wyldon was on Kel. It's no secret that Alanna despises the man, either. Still, Alanna wasn't there during the war, at least not to see Wyldon’s reaction when they’d discovered Kel had gone after the people from Haven. Wyldon isn't Raoul's favourite man either, but Raoul knows that he'd been, to say the least, quite upset about Kel appearing to hare off into Scanra. He knows Kel respects Wyldon. 

"If you want to help me with my little project, you should help me get women to join the Own," Raoul says, instead of any of his other thoughts. 

Alanna scowls at him, but she's been scowling at him for decades. "You can't do that yourself?" 

Raoul shrugs. "Not everyone was pleased about recruiting from the Bazhir. And don't I have enough to do, training her to be the best?" 

Alanna sighs, but the fight winds out of her. She knows Raoul is right. Kel needs to be unimpeachable; she needs to be as close to perfect as she can get, and there will still be dissenters. Still, Kel is popular among commoners, especially up north. Her reputation grows every successive year. Alanna thinks that if anyone were to lead a successful revolt against the Crown, it would be Kel. Privately, it’s George and Myles’ greatest relief that Kel is the person least likely to revolt against the Crown. She already knows it’s likely to be a challenge for Kel to accept the position of Knight Commander when Raoul decides to retire.

“It’s not outright banned, if that helps,” Raoul says quietly. “It’s just that no one does.”

“What about New Hope?” Alanna asks, caught by the potential puzzle here. Kel’s a better example of a Lady Knight than she is; she always has been. 

Raoul laughs. “You work with the Riders and you don’t know? There’s been an increase in recruits from the north, especially women. New Hope sends at least a couple of them every year. There were seven Rider recruits from New Hope last year, and every single one of them have been going with Kel to those self-defense lessons she helps teach in the city.”

“What a relief that she’s never had delusions of grandeur,” Alanna murmurs quietly. “Still, it should be easy enough to get a recruiting base there, and start them in Third Company.”

“Flyndan may not be too happy about that,” Raoul says, rubbing at his chin. 

Alanna glares at him. “He’s been working with Kel for close to a decade and he’s still like that?”

Raoul shrugs. “I don’t want Kel to have to do that when I step down.”

Alanna sighs. “We’ll figure it out. I’m guessing Thayet’s also in on your plan.”

“How else are we supposed to outmaneuver Jon?” Raoul asks rhetorically. 

Jon is honestly the biggest thorn in this plan. Alanna tells Raoul as much and he makes an entirely too expressive face. Sounds about right. Sometimes she misses the person Jon was before the Crown happened to him. 

* * *

**TOBE**

Tobe understands why Kel went haring off into Scanra when they took the people of Haven all those years ago. He understood it then, too, and he understands it now as well. Kel cannot resist the urge to help people. She’s done it for him, after all, not saying anything when she’d done it, just saying that he deserved better and telling Alvik so, refusing to take no for an answer. She’s taking care of him now to this day. When they’d returned to Corus, she took him to the shop of her dressmaker friend, who was quiet but in a different way from Kel, and got him clothes from there, brand new and fitted to him, not even the sturdy secondhand clothing he was wearing during the war. She still takes Tobe there for new clothes every few months, and he and Lalasa share their own knowing glances every time Kel acts particularly like herself.

Kel doesn’t need to do any of it for him, not when she’s technically got him apprenticing partly with the Riders and partly with the stables, under Stefan Groomsman, but Kel never does what she’s supposed to, made clearer still by the fact that she argues about payment with Lalasa the entire time. Kel feels realest to him in moments like this, when she actually shows off that she has a temper. Her stubbornness on another person would make that person real, but on her, it fits like a second skin. Sometimes Lalasa tells him that Kel feels like someone from a legend. Tobe understands exactly what she means.

Tobe isn’t surprised when the Riders all know Kel, either. They don’t ask him about Kel, although Kel eats in their mess sometimes, usually caught in a discussion with their Commander. Tobe likes him well enough, even if his interactions with the man are limited to occasionally looking after his horses and finding the man eyeing him thoughtfully. Tobe doesn’t think Evin is a bad man; he just thinks that there’s other things going on in that man’s mind and behind the scenes. Stefan is the same way, but Tobe knows better than to expect an answer from them, even if he asks. He does what he’s best at, instead, and always keeps an eye out for horses that would suit Kel’s temperament, not that she goes through horses with any kind of regularity. 

The year that Gydo and Loey show up to become Rider trainees is the year that Evin finally comes to talk to him, and someone finally asks him about Kel. 

“Your Lady,” Evin says, carefully. “You trust her?”

He’s not smiling now; he hasn’t done any of his Player’s magic tricks. He’s serious, then. 

“Is this about what you and Stefan do?” Tobe asks, just as carefully. 

He’s not stupid; he thinks Stefan has been testing him, over the last few years, but even before that, Tobe used to work in an inn and then spent three years in the middle of a battlefield. He’s not stupid, and his Lady’s an education all on her own. But he doesn’t want them pulling him into their own tricks; their loyalty isn’t to Kel and Tobe’s very much is. He wants to end up like Neal; eavesdropping on their Whisper Man politics and firmly out of it. 

Evin’s grin is wry. “And if it is?”

“She’s not one for that kind of sneaking around,” Tobe points out logically. “And I’ve heard there are other plans for her, anyway.”

“Of course you have,” Evin says, smiling pleasantly. “Does she know those plans?”

Tobe shrugs. “I don’t owe you anything. I owe her. You understand, right?”

“Your friends?” Evin asks. “Loesia, Gydane?” 

Tobe shrugs again. He’s not worried about them. He calls Kel his mother when she’s being particularly herself. So do they. “You’ll have to ask them.”

“She’s part of us without knowing it, you know,” Evin says. 

“Where have you been, the past few years?” Tobe asks. “Enough Riders go out to Lalasa’s lessons in the city and come back with new, nastier tricks, or enough of those merchant’s daughters and shop girls or New Hope citizens come into your Riders. There’s no way you don’t see it.”

“Does she know?” Evin asks. 

This is also a test, of sorts. “Shouldn’t you be asking her that?”

“You’re not being particularly helpful.”

“I don’t need to be,” Tobe shrugs. “If I really wanted to, I could have kept following her with Third Company.”

He’d considered it; it would’ve been one way to keep her under his own watch. He doesn’t trust other people to take care of her properly. This, too, is a conversation that he has had with Lalasa and continues to have every so often when he visits her. But he keeps his eyes open and himself forgettable and learns a hundred little things in the palace and through the Riders. Most of them are good to know. A few of them are particularly helpful to his cause. He’s sure that his system is nowhere near as intricate as what they have set up, but it hardly needs to be. He’s only looking after one person.

* * *

**NEAL**

“Are they really going to make her the Commander of the King’s Own?” Neal hisses at Yuki. He spent four years as Alanna’s squire; he knows who Tortall’s Whisper Man is. He still likes to collect information just for the sake of having it.

Yuki shrugs, still graceful, but there’s just a hint of wickedness in her eyes and she’s hiding her mouth with her fan. He knows she knows exactly what he’s talking about; she still serves Princess Shinkokami and sits in on a number of confidential meetings. “I don’t see why not.”

Neal runs a hand through his hair. “It’s Kel,” he snaps. 

“Even if she doesn't see the big picture, she’s still a good choice for the post. You followed her, after all,” Yuki says, lowering her fan and smiling impishly. “She knows she’s being groomed for some kind of leadership position; she’s not that stupid.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Neal says, frowning. 

Kel chooses that moment to be announced into their quarters. “Neal, you’re not escaping the practice courts today,” she calls, still in the receiving room of their suite

Neal lets out a mostly put-upon mournful sigh as he walks through the doorway. “Once again, death has come for me. Yuki, my love, keep my handkerchief tucked close to your heart, for Kel has come to give me lumps and lumps.”

Kel has her hands on her hips, and her face is the neutral blank one she wore through most of her page years, but Neal knows she’s amused. “Be strong, buttercup. I’ll go easy on you, since you haven’t had time to get rusty yet.”

Neal only became a knight because his older brothers were dead, and there have always been Queenscove knights. After the war had ended, he’d been happy to sink back into the study of medicine, the closest he could get to university without actually going back to university. It helps that all the Palace healers are knowledgeable and don’t mind teaching Neal. But Kel doesn’t seem to care that his focus is in research; every time she’s in the palace, she comes to his and Yuki’s suite and makes Neal practice his weapons. 

Yuki smiles impishly. “Have fun!”

“Have fun, she says,” Neal grumbles, for show. “How am I supposed to have fun when a giant is going to use me as a punching bag?”

Kel only laughs. “C’mon, Neal. Don’t you want to hear what the good citizens of New Hope have to say?”

Neal wonders if she realises that while he may have healed them and helped take care of them, it’s Kel that they look up to. It’s not like Kel to be aware of her own importance, so he supposes not. “Did they really ask for me, or are you making that up?”

Kel looks a little giddy. “New Hope’s a proper town now, you know. Fanche has expansion plans, but she was actually asking about you. I think she misses someone to fight with. There’s another couple of girls who are planning to try for the Riders this year.”

Neal can’t help be buoyed by Kel’s enthusiasm. Still, there’s no way she knows that this is the result of her hours, dedicated to teaching children in the middle of a war when anyone else would've said no. Neal would have lost his patience a hundred times over, watching over every country bumpkin and every kid running underfoot. Kel corralled them, put weapons in their hands, and taught them to be something greater, something just and true and dedicated to protecting themselves and the people around them. Alanna has mentioned, on occasion, that it’s a crime that Kel will never be able to become training master. Neal’s inclined to agree with her and also mourn that Kel doesn’t take on squires, although she normally has her rescues, both animal and people. Any squire picked by Kel would end up a proper chivalrous knight, but the issue is that Kel is new nobility, no Book of Gold or Silver. She gets purses from the Crown and gifts from all the people that she’s helped, but nothing that would add up to enough that she could sponsor squires. There’s several female pages now, and he’s seen Kel’s wistful glances at those page training yards, but she still hasn’t taken on a squire.

There’s no way Kel knows what they’re actually grooming her for; she’s told him about her conversation with Raoul about commanders, and what he’s overheard from Raoul and Alanna and even Roald has confirmed that they want her to be the next Commander of the King’s Own, and damn the trouble they’ll get into for doing it. He admires them, even if he doesn’t necessarily agree with their approaches. Then again, Kel will catch on sooner or later. She hasn’t caught on yet, but her hand is in almost as many different pots as Alanna’s husband, and she’s not sneaky about it at all. She can’t stop herself from helping people; it’s antithetical to who she is. 

“What will it be today?” Neal asks, following behind Kel as she heads towards the practice courts.

“Swords, I think,” Kel says. 

“Run me through while you’re at it,” Neal says, and laughs at the expression on Kel’s face. 

He wonders if she notices that they collect an audience every time she does this, of Rider trainees and pages, mostly girls with wide eyes. They all seem to think they need to hide, which isn’t anywhere near true. Kel’s not scary if you want to learn from her; only if you’re a dolt, and even then, she gives you at least four chances to apologize and walk back whatever stupid thing you’ve said. 

“If your head’s in the clouds, you’re going to die,” Kel says, as pragmatic as ever. 

“Thank you, mother,” Neal says, as dryly as he can manage. “I had no idea.”

Kel doesn’t take the bait, just waits patiently for him to assume a ready stance. Even if she waits for him to be ready and lets him start their bout, he’s still going to lose. He’s accepted his fate. He has magic that she can never touch and knowledge of diplomacy and intelligence, but she can outfight him and enjoys university level mathematics. It’s a tradeoff, but he knows that he could never be her.

* * *

**ILANE**

Ilane turns a corner leaving the practice courts and runs into someone. She doesn’t fall over, but the other party isn’t as lucky. She blinks and offers a hand to the girl she’s knocked over, slender and dressed in rather plain breeches and a tunic, with fair hair tied in two short braids. 

“Oh, you’re Aunt Kel’s mother,” the girl says, dusting herself off, blinking at Ilane in surprise. Ilane is fairly sure she’s never met this girl in her life; she knows all of her many nephews and nieces even though they live in two different countries. 

“I’m sorry?” Ilane asks, allowing herself a polite smile. 

The girl turns fiercely red and immediately bows in apology. “I’m sorry, my lady, it just slipped out. All the little ones at New Hope call her that, and I’ve five younger siblings.”

“What’s your name?” Ilane asks, continuing to smile at the torrent of words being thrown at her. Another Kel story for her; one that she won’t be able to tell some of the noblewomen, the ones who are just noble enough to turn their noses up to the part of Kel who believes in justice for all. 

“Ailse Miller.”

“Ilane of Mindelan,” Ilane says, offering a hand to shake. Ailse’s grip is surprisingly strong for how small she is. “Although you knew that already. You’re quite far from New Hope.”

“I’m a Rider trainee,” Ailse admits, shyly, scuffing her feet. “A couple of us come down every year that turn sixteen, my lady, like Loey and Gydo and all the others.”

“Kel goes back often,” Ilane says, smiling. “She’s attached.”

Ailse beams. “She’s honorary aunt for about half the really little ones, and talks to all of us that’re looking to join either the Riders or the Own. She taught me two different tricks for disarming someone with a knife. She’s really great.”

That sounds like Ilane’s daughter. Ilane finds herself filled with boundless affection, for this breathless slip of a girl and for the daughter she’s raised who seems to have been adopted by all of a small town. She can’t say she’s surprised; Kel’s always had a knack for inspiring loyalty.

“You’ll have to excuse me,” Ailse says, bouncing on her feet. “I’ve to go to the stables. It was nice to see you.”

“I hope I see you again,” Ilane says, completely sincerely. “We can trade stories next time.”

“I’ll hold you to that, my lady,” Ailse grins, bowing one last time before dashing off in the same direction she had been before she’d run into Ilane. 

Ilane stares after her, some part of her a little wistful. Kel belongs to so many other people now. It’s funny, sometimes. Out of all of her children it’s Kel who’s the most meteoric of them all. The rest of them are content as small-time knights or scholars and ladies of their respective houses, but Kel is the one whose name is going to go down in history. Sometimes Ilane sees her youngest daughter and wonders who that tall, battle-hardened stranger is. The Kel who came home from the Scanran War didn’t spend much time at home, always up at the palace training or out in another part of Tortall, doing what was right and just. To this day, Ilane learns far more about her daughter from other nobles or even members of her household staff than she ever does from Kel. Now she can add commoner girls who come from the town built out of Kel’s wartime refugee camp to that long list of informants, always willing to talk about the Lady Knight, the Protector of the Small, or just plain Kel. 

Sometimes Ilane wonders if she regrets all the years she missed because she’d gone with Piers to the Islands and Kel stayed in the Palace, working herself half to death under Wyldon. Kel’s settled into a new life now, still studying under Raoul of Goldenlake even though she’s no longer his squire, still going out with Third Company whenever someone calls for the Own. Ilane has settled back into the Tortallan court to hear gossip from Yuki, who tells her plenty of stories about the Protector of the Small and Kel and the Lady Knight. The Kel Ilane sees is completely unaware of her own influence and of what rumours have spun her up into, surprisingly not that different from their source material. The Kel Ilane sees is completely unaware of the swath of young noblewomen whose eyes brighten when they hear Ilane introduce herself as a Mindelan, who always shyly work up the courage to ask about Kel. Kel’s no mythical being like the Champion, but that makes her more popular, not less. 

Ilane gives them her carefully hoarded stories, the ones she’s pieced together by listening to what others have to say about her daughter. She has precious few of her own that she wants to share with the masses, as proud as she is of Kel. She learns stories from them, too, from former Riders and Queen’s Ladies and noblewomen who’ve watched every joust Kel has ever participated in but haven’t moved to do the same. All of them have that same light in their eyes. All of them will tell her their Kel stories unprompted, as long as she displays her interest and enthusiasm, and Ilane has vested interest in the Kel that all these women see. But the glimpse of Kel that Ilane got from Ailse’s eyes is another facet of her daughter, one that Ilane isn’t as familiar with. 

Ilane is still staring at the empty space in front of her when she resolves that she’ll spend more time with the Riders, or at least try to find Ailse again. She has a feeling Ailse would appreciate the story of Kel at ten, armed with rocks and nothing else at all, still determined to face off against a spidren. She doesn’t tell that story often; when she’d first heard of what had happened, her heart had lurched in her chest, even though her face had stayed in that cultivated Yamani mask. She thinks Ailse would appreciate it, somehow, in a way that most of the noblewomen in silks with their fashionable fans wouldn’t.

* * *

**BURI**

Kel’s in the training yard with a Yamani bow again. She’s almost like clockwork in that regard. Any time she has some kind of mental turmoil, she ends up in the training yard, shooting arrows at targets even though she relies on that glaive of hers. It’s nice that so many of the new recruits are Kel’s fans; Buri gets reports every time Kel has spent too much time in the training yards. None of them will ever tell Kel that she’s been out there too long; too many of them still think of Kel as the Protector of the Small.

“What are you doing?” Buri asks bluntly.

Kel looses a couple more arrows. It’s not the dead of winter anymore, but it’s still cold, Buri’s breath forming faint white clouds. 

Kel finally lowers the bow and turns to face Buri. “Did you know your husband was planning to relinquish his position to me?” 

Her voice is perfectly polite, dry and emotionless. It’s more than a little unsettling, but then again, Kel seems to save her feelings for everyone else. 

“It’s a bit of an open secret,” Buri admits, tucking her hands into her pockets. “Why are you so surprised?”

“I thought he just wanted me to lead one of the Companies, but I heard him arguing with the King,” Kel says, voice still dangerously even. 

Buri can hear the strain underneath it, like a turbulent river still flowing under a layer of ice that isn’t nearly thick enough. “It would’ve been a possibility for any squire Raoul took on. It’s just that you’re an especially competent leader. You’d be wasted anywhere else.”

Buri has said one small lie, but Kel can do more good as the Commander of the King’s Own rather than as the training master.

Kel stalks to the target and pulls out the arrows methodically, tucking them back into the quiver. When she finally makes her way to Buri, she looks much more composed than she had been. “I’ve been hearing the two of them cutting off conversations when I come by for at least a year now.” 

Buri shrugs. Raoul had been teaching her logistics for companies when she was just a squire. He’s been more intentional about it since the war ended; it’s just that Kel has no self-awareness of just how much of a folk hero she’s become. The Protector of the Small is never going to be the kind of god-touched legend that Alanna is, but that makes Kel a hundred times more approachable and popular. Of course there are people who don’t like her. Of course there are people who think she doesn’t deserve her shield. However, every year there are less of them, drowned out by the number of people who have seen Kel in action, seen her in person, and found out that she did match up to the legends. Kel has been in the public eye since she was a page, and thrust further into it when she turned fourteen. 

“How many people are going to quit the Own if I actually become the Commander?” Kel asks, practical as ever. 

Buri knows Kel has her impractical moments, given that they’re standing in a dark practice yard in the cold because Kel’s reaction to finding out that Raoul wants her as his successor was taking it out on archery targets. It still surprises her how levelheaded Kel is. At the same time, she wonders how Kel manages to miss that it’s not just Raoul behind her. 

Buri lets out a deep belly laugh. “It’s not just Raoul working towards it, you know. There’s an entire group of us who want to see you in that blue and white and silver. It even matches your shield.”

Kel’s mouth twitches slightly. 

“Would it be so bad?” Buri asks, as gently as she can.

“I guess it would be hard to find someone with the same qualifications,” Kel says, but there’s a slight frown on her face. “I have the feeling that His Majesty really doesn’t like the idea.”

Buri snorts. “Jon has to manage the opinions of everyone in Tortall. Somewhere deep down, he knows that you’re a very, very good option, if not the best option. He just also knows that you’re not the easy choice. It’s a balancing act he has to play.”

“I’m never quite sure if I like him or not,” Kel admits, and Buri is caught in the memory of a much younger Kel, the first time Buri had caught her angrily shooting at targets. Buri’s pretty sure Kel had been using a Yamani bow then as well. The more things change. Raoul, too, has mentioned this to her before. Buri wonders, too, if this is part of the reason why Kel doesn’t like to stay at the palace.

“You are entitled to your opinions,” Buri says mildly. Kel has more reason than most to not necessarily like Jon, but she’s still loyal. In any case, Kel is loyal to Roald and Shinkokami, and Jon will step down eventually. 

“Thanks,” Kel says. “Who ratted me out?”

“Couldn’t tell you,” Buri says, rocking on her heels, grinning impishly. She’s pretty sure the girl who ratted Kel out is the same one that occasionally has Ilane of Mindelan visiting her in the Riders’ mess, but what Kel doesn’t know won’t hurt her. “Let’s go inside and have a drink, hm? You can find a fun way to break it to Raoul that you know now.”

Kel blinks at her guilelessly. “Why do I have to tell him? It’s not like he told me.”

“You’re very good,” Buri says appreciatively. 

Kel’s smile is fleeting, there and gone like her sparrow friends. “He’s very sure, isn’t he?”

“Any squire of his would be well-placed to be his successor,” Buri says. “Alan can’t be because he’s not a commander and a little young and inexperienced. You are a commander and experienced enough, and one day, you’ll be Commander.”

Kel shrugs, like she still doesn’t quite believe it. Typical. At least they have a couple years still to drill it into her head.

* * *

**RAOUL**

Kel is, in some ways, an accident for Raoul. He always meant to make her his squire; he knew she’d be an asset to him, but he was never at court long enough to learn her personality. He’d known the important things, of course, but Kel was a happy surprise, competent and clever and eager to learn. He collected stories about her, a little bit for Alanna, but as she grew older and in infamy, for himself as well. None of the stories captured her then; none of the stories capture her now, as grandiose as they’ve become. He has counters for any joke she’d make about forts that’ve been named after him; she never gives him openings for those jokes. They’re close, as they should be when they’ve worked together for over a decade. 

Kel has a father. Raoul knows that; he’s met the man and he can see the resemblance between them, even as he’s confident in saying that Kel has modeled herself after her mother. Still, Kel is going to be the successor to Raoul’s greatest legacy, and that should count for something, too. They’ve known each other for over a decade now; he’s been teaching her for just as long. He’s known her since she was fourteen; he’s shaped some of what she’s become as a knight. He’s had pleasant but somewhat stupefying conversations with Ilane of Mindelan, who still sometimes asks him wistful questions about what Kel was like as a squire and will cajole stories about Kel from anyone who’ll tell them. Raoul understands how she feels, even though he’s not in that same situation. He’s not exactly her parent; he didn’t meet her until she’d already passed through several years of her life. 

He still thinks he can read her just as well as her parents can, and he wants to know what’s happening right now. 

Kel is staring after Jon’s retreating back with that familiar carefully blank face of hers. 

“What are you thinking?” 

“I think he’s still mad he’s being outmaneuvered,” Kel says, her face still blank. “Is this really worth it?”

Jon’s almost definitely still mad that he’s being outmaneuvered, but Raoul has given up on hearing anything resembling a protest from Jon, much like Alanna. Alanna still holds a grudge against Jon for refusing to let Alanna come near Kel at all until she became a knight. Raoul has, to Jon’s face, threatened to refuse to step down unless Kel is the one replacing him. He’s sure enough members of Jon’s family and inner circle have made similar enough threats. The worst part of it is that Jon would like to dislike Kel, given that they’re all twisting his arm about her, but he actually likes her. It’s Kel, after all. Not many people like them are capable of disliking Kel, although the conservatives will try. Then again, Wyldon and Kel actually carry on a correspondence now, so stranger things have happened.

Raoul gives her a look. “I thought you were done protesting this, since it’s all but publicly announced that you’ll be the next Commander. Since it’s supposed to be a secret, of course everyone knows.”

Kel shrugs. “Or it could be a well-placed rumour to distract from whoever would actually be replacing you.”

“The court’s much less against you these days,” Raoul says patiently. This is the roadblock that they always run into, now that she knows. Raoul almost wishes she had stayed oblivious, but sometimes it’s fun to tease her about it. “You just don’t spend enough time here to know.”

Kel manages to convey extreme disdain with the barest shift of her face. “You’re a terrible man. I didn’t become a knight for this.”

She wouldn't have come close to making that kind of joke in the very beginning. 

Raoul laughs. “No, you became a knight to become Lady Knight Commander of the King’s Own.”

Kel’s blank face cracks just enough that she smiles. “You’re terrible. I don’t know how Buri stands you. If anything, at least the Own will be free of your personality once you retire.”

Raoul shrugs. He’s been called worse by people who don’t even hold a hundredth of the regard he has for Kel, and at least this time, she’s accepting what he’s trying to leave in her care. For Kel, it’s equal parts duty and gift, to command the King’s Own. She wasn’t born for it, perhaps, but she’s been shaped for it. To give her or the realm anything less would be criminal, in some way, when she’s shaped Tortall through her own existence. Raoul will do this as many times as it takes, as long as, at the end of the day, she’ll be the knight taking on his legacy. 


End file.
